‘One Out of Four Nigerians Malnourished’

Dr. Musa Obadiah of the Department of Community Health, Jos University Teaching (JUTH) declared last week in Lagos that one out of every four Nigerian children was mal-nourished because of deficiencies in the vital vitamins in their food intake.

Speaking on a topic: “The role of Vitamin A in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)” at a seminar organized by the Olu Akinkugbe Child Nutrition Center of Friesland Foods WAMCO Plc, Obadiah noted that the absence of the vital vitamin renders the body vulnerable to infections as the immune system would have been destroyed. He said Vitamin A fortification was necessary for children so that their bodies could effectively fight off infections which could lead to diseases.

Speaking at the well attended lecture, Obadiah said Vitamin A is an essential fat soluble vitamin, obtainable from two major food sources. These, he said are animal products, such as milk, eggs, liver, fish and poultry, and plants in a precursor form as beta-carotene in green leafy vegetables, pawpaw, mangoes, pears and any yellow-brown fruit.

He said some benefits of vitamin A within a physiologic level include; cellular differentiation, maintenance of epithelial structures integrity and immunologic functions.
He attributed the causes of deficiencies to insufficient intake due to poor content of the diet of individual or group compared to the physiological need, poor food choices, increased physiological demand during pregnancy and rapid growth in infancy and childhood or marked losses due to illnesses or absorptive disorders.

He said a manifestation of the deficiency is visual impairment resulting from loss of normal functions and morphology of cornea, conjuctivae as well as retina.
According to Obadiah, Vitamin A Deficiency is observed to be associated with a decline in plasma retinol concentration, disturbances in hepatic retinol metabolism, reduction in retinol-binding-protein (RBP), accumulation of hepatic retinyl esters, decrease in lecithin; and depletion of retinol acyl transferase (RAT). All these he said, make the liver become vulnerable to infections and gross dysfunction of glycogen formation and storage.
On the mortality resulting from Vitamin A Deficiency, he said about 2.5 million deaths are recorded annually on the global level. It is the likely cause of 23 per cent of childhood deaths, and over 50 per cent suffer from severe complications of measles.

The don added that VAD is a major contributor of 20 -24 per cent of child mortality from diseases like diarrhea, measles and malaria. According to him, Nigeria is one of the top six countries in the world that account for the largest concentration of vitamin A deficient and xerophthalmic children. He said 29.5 per cent of Nigerian children less than 5 years are vitamin A deficient, adding that the problem is nationwide and of public health concern.

Speaking about the MDGs, especially as it relates to the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, he said VAD contributes to stunting, innate immune systems and visual impairments especially in children less than 5 years as mentioned above.
Furthermore, he said studies have shown “that about 6 per cent of the productivity of adult manual labor is lost due to stunting and children who are stunted do on average, 10 per cent worse in school than their peers.

As it relates to Goal 2 of the MDGs, which is to Achieve Universal Primary Education, he said VAD affects school enrollment due to delayed milestones; it promotes poor school attendance/ increased rate of absenteeism, and lean primary education resources are directed toward medical care.

Under Goal 3 of the MDGs, which is to promote gender equality and empower women, Obadiah said it means maximum attention to peculiar physiological needs and rights of women. He noted that menstruation, pregnancy, and lactation place a lot of demands for micronutrients store especially vitamin A and iron on women of childbearing age. Therefore, he added that improving maternal store of vitamin A leads to improved maternal health and productivity, including reduction in disability like night blindness.
He noted that controlling VAD in Nigeria can result to; a reduction of current under five mortality rate of 197/1000 to about 59.1/1000 live births; saving about 489,821 deaths of under-five children annually; reduction in complications from measles, malaria and other infectious diseases; and improved recovery and disease outcomes especially severe adverse effects of measles, malaria and diarrhea.

“It can be summed up that food fortification is one of the most cost-effective interventions and one that could achieve scale rapidly if foods commonly consumed by a large proportion of the population were fortified,” Obadiah said.

This, he said, can be successfully accomplished through strategies mix, partnership building, community awareness and ownership, government’s commitments backed with appropriate policies with the unflinching supports of the private sectors especially in the foods industries and international agencies including donors.

Earlier in his welcome address, Mr. Isaac Agoye, deputy managing director, WAMCO, said the foundation was set up in honor of Chief Olu Akikungbe, who had served the company meritoriously. Agoye said the activities of the Foundation spread across the states of Lagos, Kwara and Oyo at the moment, was a way of giving back to the society. Dignitaries and nutritionists from across the country graced the occasion.

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